Improved fuel for metallurgic purposes



fitnitml tatt5 agatwt @tllllirt.

. EDWARDS LESTER.

or NEW .YonK, N. Y.

Letters Patent N 96,243, dated October 26, 1869. I

IMPROVED FUEL FOR METALLURGIC PURPOSES.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the aame.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, O. EDwAnDs LESTER, of New York, in the county of New York, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements ii- Fuel for Metallnrgie and other Purposes and j I do hereby declare that thetbllowing is a full, clear, aml exact description thereof.

Five years ago I commencedand have eversince prosecuted a series of investigations and experiments, whose object was to create or discover a fucl which s'rould possess the following zulvantages over all othlurgy.

Fourth, of readier ignition aml greater compactness for storage, by containing within a given space a greater amount of calorific power.

Filth, whose ingredients are found all over the world, in nearly all.v countries, aml which have little or nocommcreial value, thus saving cost of material and of trans mrtation.

Sixth, applicable to any apparatus now in use for any nietallurgic purposes, whctherin reducing ores, or melting or manipulz'iting metals.

In accomplishing these purposes, I found it necessary to produce'a proximately pure hydrocarbon in a solid form, from which should be evolved, in combustion, those gases which would secure the results so much demanded in the wide range of metallurgy.

\ I found carbon, as a simple clement, whether in the form of coke or anthracite, (even if desulphurizeth) or animal or vegetable charcoal, too feeble an agent, and generally too expensive-and bulky. I therefore resorted to substances rich in hydrogen, which, united with carbon, and furnished with the requisite supply ofoxygen, produce the intenscstheat. Hence, in my solid hydrocarbon I imitate the heat of the compound blow-pipe, by combining hydrogenous and carbonaceoussubstanccsin such proportions as will, with a soil ficient draught, produce a perfect or nearly perfect combustion. Sucha combination enables the compound in combustion to receive and appropriate a much larger amount of oxygen trom the air than any other solid fuel known.

Hydrogen has many times the heating power of carbon, owing chiefly, I believe, to its capacity to receive, and absorb, and chemically combine, in combustion, with a much greater amount of oxygemthechiet' promoter of combustion. 'Hencethe more fixed hydrogenany fuel contains, provided it is mixed inproper proportions with carbon and oxygen, thereby evolving carbonic-acid gas insteadof carbonicoxide, the easier are its ignition and combustion, the greater the quantity of pure flame,'a'ud the intenser the heat. I Hydrogen as a pure gas being too difficult and expensive to generate, control, and apply with aproper draught, oxygen being obtainable in any desirable quantity from the atmosphere, I resort. to the cheapest, most manageable, and nniversally-dilfused materials in which hydrogen is found, in union with carbon chiefly, to. obtain it.

Desirous of procuring only carbonaceous and hydrogenous substances in the purestpracticab le shape, I seek those materials which are richest in these qualities, freestfrom all other ingredients, most accessible,

the easiest to manipnlztte, and the lowest in cost.

I. My first, and in all cases my hu'gest ingredient, is peat, which constitutes the base of my fuel, and never less than fifty per cent. of the entire mass. I recommend the peat to be used in a crude state, taken from deep deposits after; they have been thoroughly drained and free from surface-water, sinceI find that theliquor held in solution by such peat contains a large proportion of hydrogenous matter, which, if combined with my other materials before it has evaporated, remains permanently in my fuel, adding greatly to its flame, .and of necessity to its calorific intensity. I thus save most-oft-he volatile hydrogenous matter which escapes from peat when allowed to become much or thoroughly dried. I also find that as hydrogen has more afiinity for carbon than for the atmosphere, the oxygen in the water contained in the crude peat is mostly expelled by the manipulation and pressure in manufacturing, and the rest escapes by subsequentdrying in an ordinary atmosphere, whether sheltered or not. I select peat as rich as possible in carbonaceous and hydrogenous matter, particnlarlythe latter, 0. 9., bituminous peat, as very often "found, especially in large or deep deposits, as in the Dismal Swamp, and asphaltic peat, as found abundantly onour Pacific coast, such peats showing, on analysis, from fifty t.) seventy-two per cent. of bitumen.

II. My next largest'ingredients I choose from any of the following substances, the choice being determined by their fi:ecdom from useless or deleterious elements, their richness in carbonaceous and hydrogenous qualities, and their cost at the place ofmanufacture, viz: desulphurized, and, if necessary, dephosphorized mineral coal or its refuse, whether anthracite,

bituminous, or semi bit-uminous, or charcoal, or .its refuse, brown or stone-coal, so called, or lignit-e, or marl, or limestone, whether the two latter be bituminous or not. Of these substances, I use about one-quarter.

1 mix withthe coal the same quantity, by weight, of

common salt as the amount, by weight, of sulphur and phosphorus, if any is found to be contain d in it (the .coal) after they are grouml together, pass the compound into an upright stationary cylinder, of iron or any substantial material, through which a vertical shalt with numerous arms revolves, a constant supply of steam of high temperature is introduced through pipes 'or orifices at the bottom, and this steam escapes,

through tine orifieesin the cover at the top. I am not particular about this exact form; I only want to have the mass of coal-dust and salt thoroughly acted upon by the steam. In a cylinder holding one thousand poumls,'the length of the cylinder being six times greater than the diameter, twenty-five thousand revolutions of the shaft completes the process. The rapor of salt thus volatilized decompomtlu; obnoxious ingredients in the coal-dust, and the fuel evolves no sulphurous acid, in combustion, and the heat generated by my fuel is powerful enough to destroy sulphur,

exact proportions oi these difiin-ent ingredients, be-

cause most of them any so widely in the relative amounts-of carbon and hydrogen as thuud in different forms, places, and conditions When I have my materials on haml, I fix the rule of proportions by ascertaining,1i-om :malys'is or experiments, or both, the amount of the elements I desire contained in each,

and-so regulate the quantity of each as to secure my object, viz, a solid hydrocarbon, which, with a suffieient and ivelleregulated draught, will produce eom- ,plete combustion with great dams and superlative heating-power.

My Process of Treatment.

First, I equally and thoroughly mix the materials, by grinding them all togethe or any of them separately first, it finmd'best, so completely pulverizing and disintegrating them, that when mixed they constitute a homogeneous compound mass. 1 have done this satisiiietorily with Bogarduss eccentric mill.

Second, this eompouml is then passed through a press, as dryv clay brick are pressed, of sufl'icient power to shape it into any desired form, or of any degree of compactness and solidity required; or by an apparatus of my own invention, the two' before-inentioned processes may be done with. one n'iachine.

I do not claim the mere combination of the withinmentioned substance; but I What I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Desnlphurizing and dephosphoriziug coal, or its refuse, when placed in union with any other substance .or substances, for the purpose described.

2. 'lln-productiou of asolid hydroearlnm, substantially as herein set forth, that is to say, by the union of hydrogenous and carbonaceous substances, when said substances are treated chemically and mechanieally, substantially in the manner andfor the purposes described.

C. EDWARDS LESTER.

Witnesses:

Snrrn GARDNER, .i. A. Wi-nssa. 

